United Workers

This week the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)  kicked off their Trader Joe’s Northeast Tour in Baltimore. Together, the CIW, United Workers, and community allies hit up our local Trader Joe’s, which happens to be located in one of GGP’s many malls, the Towson Town Center. It was an interesting physical intersection of the Campaign for Fair Food and the fight for Fair Development.

To see more from the photo report from this action and to follow the tour, go to http://www.ciw-online.org

On Wednesday March 2nd, a delegation from United Workers started our journey to Tampa, Florida, in solidarity with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), to demand that Publix and other groceries store chains, “Do the Right Thing.” These words are easy even for a child to understand, but Publix, Giant and Trader Joe’s have decided to ignore the workers and their demand for justice. We know what it is like for corporations to hide from accountability. At Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, the developers Cordish and GGP have also decided to ignore the workers, and so like the CIW, we are asking them to “Do the Right Thing” and put an end to Poverty Zone Development. We see the fight for Fair Food and the fight for Fair Development as connected. Doing the right thing means respecting all workers from the fields to the restaurants, together we are demanding a world in which corporations respect human rights as a step towards ending poverty for everyone everywhere.

Our media team will be updating the website with pictures, video and radio pieces from the “Do the Right Thing” actions in Tampa this weekend. To learn more about this weekend’s actions involving four simultaneous sit-ins and a puppet pageant, go to the Coalition of Immakolee Workers website http://www.ciw-online.org/

United Workers Delegation ready to hit the road to Tampa

After 18 hours driving

After 18 hours we still in good mode and with energy

http://www.ciw-online.org/

On Tuesday, November 15th, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) made a major breakthrough in the Campaign for Fair Food. At a press conference in Immokalee, the CIW and Florida Tomato Growers Exchange signed an agreement to extend the CIW’s Fair Food principles – including a strict code of conduct, a cooperative complaint resolution system, a participatory health and safety program, and a worker-to-worker education process – to over 90% of the Florida tomato industry.

For years the Florida Tomato Grower’s Exchange had until now prevented the CIW’s penny more per pound agreements from actually reaching farmworkers. Victory after victory, Taco Bell, Burger King, McDonalds, Whole Foods, Aramark and still the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange staunchly refused to work with the CIW. But as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King often said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” So it was only a matter of time, before the Growers Exchange bent under the mounting weight of the Campaign for Fair Food and sat at the table with farmworkers to ensure basic human rights standards.

As longtime allies, the United Workers celebrates this victory as our own. Just as an injury to one is an injury to all, a victory for one is a victory for all in this struggle for human dignity. We congratulate the CIW on this hard fought victory and look forward to continuing to stand with them in this ongoing movement for justice in the fields of Florida. “Make no mistake, there is still much to be done,”said Lucas Benitez of the CIW. “This is the beginning, not the end, of a very long journey. But with this agreement, the pieces are now in place for us to get to work on making the Florida tomato industry a model of social accountability for the 21st century.”

To read more about this landmark victory, go to http://www.ciw-online.org/

In their latest effort to expose the realities of farmworker exploitation and forced labor in the fields of Florida, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is on a Northeast Tour of their Modern-Day Slavery Museum. We are excited to host the CIW and the Modern-Day Slavery Museum on their stop through Baltimore. This Saturday, August 14, the museum will be parked all day at McKeldin Square at the Inner Harbor.

The Florida Modern-Day Slavery Museum is a cargo truck outfitted as a replica of the trucks involved in a recent slavery operation, in which workers were chained at night inside a truck and forced to work during the day. The exhibition, which was put together in consultation with workers who escaped forced labor operations and academics on the history of slavery in Florida, sheds light on the phenomena of modern-day slavery, why it persists and what are its solutions. It draws the line from past to present and from farmworkers to the major corporations that exert a powerful downward pressure on wages and working conditions. But most importantly as the museum makes stops in communities across the North East, it is drawing the line between all of us to the conditions of farmworkers and creating a connection to struggles for dignity and justice all over.

And what better place for the Modern-Day Slavery Museum to stop than Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, the site of another modern-day phenomena—poverty-zone development. So Join us this Saturday in viewing this incredible exhibition and learning more about how we all can be a part of envisioning a future free from poverty and forced labor.

To read more about the Modern-Day Slavery Museum and their most recent stops, go to http://www.ciw-online.org/

Baltimore Stop:

When: Saturday, August 14th 10 AM-8 PM

Where: McKeldin Square at the Inner Harbor (Pratt St. and Light St.)

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers Modern Slavery Museum made the trek all the way to D.C. in conjunction with a ceremony in which CIW’s own Laura Germino was recognized by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her exemplary efforts in the fight against modern-day slavery in the United States. With the CIW in our neck of the woods, we took a day to visit our friends and congratulate them on their incredibly achievements in the ongoing struggle for human dignity.

A delegation from Baltimore are participating in the Farmworkers Freedom March, here is some videos from the march, soon, we also will have interviews with the participants, from Baltimore and other states and countries.

Today a delegation of United Workers leaders, who in December traveled from Baltimore to Immokalee, Florida on the Fair Food Solidarity Tour, are returning to Florida. Because tomorrow, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) will begin the Farmworker Freedom March, a trek from Tampa to Lakeland, home of Publix grocery store. Thousands of farmworkers and consumers will participate in this three day march to demand- freedom from forced labor, poverty and abuse.

After seventeen years of fighting for dignity and respect in the fields of Florida and significant victories from McDonald’s to Whole Foods, the CIW is one step closer to their vision of transforming the agricultural industry into an industry based on the respect for human rights, not the exploitation of human beings. Along the Fair Food Solidarity Tour, we were able to share our stories of exploitation and struggle from the fields to the tourist centers. We could see how the hand that picked the tomato was connected to the hand that placed that tomato on a burger. But we were not simply connected by our exploitation, but by our vision of a world that respects the human rights of everyone, everywhere. So, we are honored and compelled to take part in this historic moment in the Campaign for Fair Food.

PUBLIX ESCUCHA! ESTAMOS EN LA LUCHA!

To learn more about the Farmworker Freedom March and how you can stand in solidarity with farmworkers, visit their website at http://www.ciw-online.org/

Last week the United Workers joined in solidarity with the farm workers of Florida, who are fighting for end to slavery and slave-like conditions in the fields. We did this because our struggles are linked – because an injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere. Workers, from the front of the house, to the kitchen, to the parking attendant, to the clean up crew, to the truck driver, to the farm worker, gain strength in unity and solidarity. The fight for fair food, like the fight for fair development, is a fight that connects issues and people together.

During the tour we were moved by the stories of worker abuses exposed by the CIW and its allies. Major corporations like the Publix grocery chain, Aramark and Giant need to be held to account and do their part in ending these abuses. We were also moved by the example of the CIW, in their extraordinarily effective efforts to draw attention to abuses and force businesses to change course and do the right thing. One way they do this is through drama, culture and effective communication of values and ideas. We think the CIW serves as a model for community organizations by focusing on leadership development, human rights values and effective action for change. While we went to Florida last week to express solidarity with farm workers, we also went to Immokalee to continue learning from such an effective model in community and human rights organizing. The Fair Food Solidarity Tour was actually sandwiched between two great examples. We started by going North to Philadelphia’s MMP, who provided examples for how to organize in a city much like Baltimore. Then we went South to Immokalee’s CIW, who provided examples for how to sustain winning campaigns in the new labor economy.

For more than the past year we’ve been working on applying lessons learned from all our allies, and the tour last week marked a milestone in preparations for the ramping up of the Human Rights Zone campaign. This process began in earnest on April 19, 2009 – the day after the B’More Fair and Human Rights Zone March – when we held a day-long meeting with our closest allies from across the country to unveil plans for ramping up the campaign over the course of the year. At that meeting we unveiled plans for a major ramping up, if Phillips refused our offers for face to face talks (which they did). Part of this included consideration by workers to move the demands up to the top of the profit chain (which workers voted to do in October).

The next step in ramping things up will be Our Harbor Day on May 1, 2010. This day will center on a participation play with a cast of hundreds (including you) converging on the Human Rights Zone to peacefully retell the people’s history of human rights struggles and victories. Your participation is what make this event a powerful day to celebrate human rights values and build the power to end the poverty-zone business model that’s being imposed on the Inner Harbor. Without you, there will be no story to tell and no history to make.

At that meeting some of our most trusted allies, especially those with a long history and deep dedication to community organizing in Baltimore, raised constructive concerns about how we would build the capacity to use street theater to communicate a message through the Our Harbor Day’s participation play. There is nothing worse than using street theater to get heard, but what’s actually heard by a disinterested media or confused public is a muddled mess.

This feedback led us plan a series of workshops and internal trainings on justice theater. We’ve already been reaching out to experienced practitioners of Theater of the Oppressed, protest puppetry, and the Battle of the Stories Framework since meeting with our allies right after the Human Rights Zone March. We held in-depth workshops at our internal Staying on Track Retreat, focused on drama and storytelling skills. And throughout last week’s Fair Food Solidarity Tour we held more internal workshops, which were enhanced by the allies we visited during the tour. CIW provides one of the best examples of combining street theater, drama, music, puppets with effective messaging to build power through action. MMP provides one of the best examples of using storytelling and new media to get heard and tell our story, our way.

The next major step in this process will be opened up to all our allies and the public – we invite you to join us as we expand our capacity building for Our Harbor Day to all our allies and the public. The Justice Theater Conference on January 16, 2010, at 2640 Space in Baltimore from 10 AM to 3 PM, will focus on building capacity that leads to action. Please note that the $15 registration fee for the conference includes lunch, with vegetarian option available (there is no charge for members of poor people’s human rights organizations and members of youth theater programs). Register today by sending an email to info@unitedworkers.org with your contact information.

At the Justice Theater Conference we will explore the intersection of theater and struggles for dignity and justice through Theater of the Oppressed, the Battle of Stories Framework, street theater and puppet making. Presenters include Classlines, Theater Action Group (TAG), Puppet Underground, Bashi Rose and Mitchell Ferguson with NOMMO Theater, and the United Workers. Small group workshops will focus on in-depth and practical skill development.

The conference is open to everyone, but we hope it will lead directly to making Our Harbor Day an effective celebration of human rights values, building on the success of the B’More Fair from the year before. We want to expand our capacity as a community for uniting the many social, economic and environmental struggles facing our city and the world. We’d like to repeat what made B’More Fair a great coming together, by expanding on the level of community participation in more of the planning and actions of the day. At the center of this will be the participation play, which is now a framework only – waiting to be filled in through the community planning process in the lead up to May 1, 2010. Even if you don’t make it to the Justice Theater Conference we want and need your participation for Our Harbor Day. Please let us know if you will help with Our Harbor Day by emailing us at info@unitedworkers.org. Together, we are writing history and taking back our harbor, taking back our city.

We invite you to join us, for the Justice Theater Conference and Our Harbor Day. The participation play is just that – a participatory process that brings people together in the writing of history. Mark your calendar now – January 16, 2010 and May 1, 2010. Visit http://unitedworkers.org/justicetheater/ for information about registering to the conference, or send an email to info@unitedworkers.org today. Start thinking of ways that we can connect struggles and convey our shared human rights values, and bring your ideas to the Justice Theater Conference as we get ready for the next major action to make the Inner Harbor a Human Rights Zone that reflects our community’s values.